Misleading news is undesirable and often disturbing. A statement by RBI in Delhi court was misunderstood by Indians and led to believe that Google Pay is an unsecured platform for facilitating financial transactions. This was now cleared by both Google Pay and NPCI, that the app is a third-party provider and its operations are completely under law.
Google Pay Transactions Are Safe!
While believing baseless news is idiotic, misinterpretation of actual news is even more idiotic! A Twitter hashtag trending as #GPayBannedByRBI, which is untrue, came after many misinterpreting the RBI’s statement. It all started with Abhijit Mishra, a financial economist who filed a PIL in Delhi court alleging that Google Pay (GPay) is facilitating transactions without any authorization from RBI.
Further, a list provided by NPCI of Payment System Operators didn’t have Google Pay’s mention in it. Moreover, a statement from RBI as “Google Pay is a third-party app provider (TPAP) and does not operate any payment systems” has further fuelled the misconception. All these triggered Indians using Google Pay, and went on Twitter calling the app is insecure, since it’s not approved by RBI.
While the truth is, as explained by NPCI, “RBI has authorized NPCI as a Payment System Operator (PSO) of UPI and NPCI in its capacity as PSO authorizes all UPI participants. We would like to clarify that Google Pay is classified as Third-Party App Provider (TPAP) that also provides UPI payment services like many others, working through banking partners and operating under the UPI framework of NPCI. All transactions made using any of the authorized TPAPs are fully protected by the redressal processes.”
If you can note the difference, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) developed by NPCI is the Payment System, which doesn’t need to be operated by anyone except NPCI. And Google Pay is just a third-party platform facilitating bank-to-bank transactions via UPI, which is secured and maintained by NPCI.